Chương 60: The Parchment

The leader of the herd, an adult stag, was especially vigilant. Every few seconds while drinking, it would raise its head, its eyes sweeping cautiously across the surroundings. Its ears constantly twitched, capturing even the slightest suspicious sound. Everything around them was perfectly normal. Only the rustling of leaves in the breeze and the occasional bird calls from the distance disturbed the silence.

Then, within this peaceful scene— A vicious roar suddenly erupted from a bush several dozen meters away from the riverbank.

"ROAR!!!" The thunderous bellow shattered the tranquility. The spotted deer reacted instantly. Normally, spotted deer were timid creatures. They should have bolted at the first sign of danger, disappearing into the depths of the forest. But something strange happened. The leading stag was just about to sprint away when its body suddenly froze. The next moment, as if all strength had been drained from its limbs, it collapsed beside the river with a heavy thud. The other deer suffered the same fate.

Panic filled their eyes as they desperately tried to flee, but their legs refused to obey. They slipped and stumbled helplessly on the ground, completely unable to organize an escape. Watching the scene unfold, Zelier nodded slightly from within the bushes.

"Not bad." 【Vituperative Curse】 Magic Type: Psychic Structure Type: Single-layer Spell Matrix Spell Rank: Tier-2 Effect Description: The caster manipulates mana to release a roar filled with intense hostility, inflicting a mental shock upon the target and causing a state of fear. Vituperative Curse possesses no physical destructive power. It is a pure control spell. It is highly effective against creatures with weak willpower or low intelligence, temporarily rendering them incapable of action.

However, against opponents with strong mental resistance, its control effect is greatly reduced. At most, it can cause hesitation or slight sluggishness in movement. Against exceptionally resilient targets, it may have no effect at all. Warning: Vituperative Curse is not an indiscriminate spell. Only selected targets will suffer the mental impact. The number of targets that can be affected increases with mana expenditure. This was the spell Zelier had learned from the White-haired Goblin.

After several days of analysis, he had finally completed the process and mastered it. With 82 Intelligence, his analysis speed had become significantly faster compared to when he had first unlocked Matrix Deduction. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. As for the spell itself, Zelier was quite satisfied. With Gravity Press and Vituperative Curse now in his arsenal, his ability to control the battlefield had improved considerably.

He was now capable of handling far more complicated situations. By the riverbank, the spotted deer finally began recovering after more than ten seconds. They struggled back onto their feet and fled in panic. After the animals disappeared, Zelier walked to the riverbank and continued practicing his other spells.

"Fireball!"

"Wind Blade!"

"Ice Lance!" One Tier-2 spell after another erupted from his hands. Finally, Zelier felt his mana reserves reaching their limit. He lowered himself onto the grass, supporting his body with both hands as he exhaled softly. Over the past few days, he had spent nearly all his free time practicing magic, trying to fully exploit the improvements brought by his Intelligence attribute. The relentless training had indeed produced results.

His understanding of spell matrices and his control over mana had both improved further. At this point, the casting time of the Tier-3 Elemental spell Flame Breath had already broken past the seven-second mark, reaching just over six seconds. Meanwhile, the more powerful Arcane Missile had also been continuously optimized through repeated practice, reducing its casting time to slightly over seven seconds. With his White Ashwood wand, the speed could be improved even further.

However, Zelier could clearly feel that he had reached his current limit. The casting time of Tier-2 spells remained stuck at four seconds. Although the process of constructing the mana circuits had become smoother, the spell structures themselves could no longer be optimized. He was still some distance away from the standard required for an Apprentice Mage advancement: Tier-3 spells cast within five seconds. Tier-2 spells cast within three seconds.

"Sigh... I really need to level up faster." Zelier muttered quietly. The bottleneck had already appeared. Pure practice alone would bring diminishing returns. Only the attribute growth gained through leveling up could break through this limitation. Time to return to the Adventurer's Guild and accept more quests. After finishing his training, Zelier did not go directly to find Marcus. Instead, he went to look for Vaelis first. He needed to figure out what exactly was written in that ancient Elven tome.

Vaelis' room was extremely tidy. Even his blanket was folded perfectly without a single wrinkle. Compared to that, Zelier's room was a complete mess. Every morning after waking up, he simply kicked off the blankets and got out of bed. He could never be bothered to clean up. After all, he would just mess everything up again when he returned at night. Vaelis was wiping down his longbow when he saw Zelier enter. The half-elf ranger stopped what he was doing, surprised.

"Your leg is healed?" Vaelis looked at him and couldn't help asking.

"Already fixed." Zelier hopped twice in place.

"There's a mage in the guild who knows healing magic."

"Preparing for another quest?"

"Yes. But before that, I wanted to show you something." Zelier carefully pulled out the ancient Elven tome made from white bark and handed it over.

"Do you know what's written inside?" Over the past few days, Zelier had continuously tried using his mental energy to probe the parchment that had increased the analysis progress of Great Creation. But he had gained no further discoveries. Vaelis looked puzzled as he opened the cover. The moment his eyes landed on the ancient, elegant writing across the pages, his expression changed immediately.

"This... this book is written in Elven?"

"Yes. I found it by chance in the Guild Library. I became curious, so I wanted to ask whether you could understand it." Seeing Vaelis' reaction, Zelier felt a surge of anticipation. Vaelis began carefully reading the text. Zelier waited silently beside him. However, he soon noticed Vaelis' brows gradually tightening. After a long while, Vaelis finally shook his head.

"No. I can't understand it."

"You don't know Elven?" Zelier asked in surprise.

"I do. But Elven has differences between regions." Vaelis explained.

"Most Elven clans have lived in isolated territories for countless generations. Their societies rarely change, and because of that isolation, their languages have gradually developed their own variations."

"But those differences are similar to regional dialects among humans. You might not understand every word, but you can usually grasp the general meaning." Vaelis flipped through several more pages.

"But this book..." He frowned.

"The Elven language used here is far too different from the one I know."

"So different that it almost feels like an entirely separate language."

"I can barely confirm that this is an ancient tome recording myths and legends. Beyond that, I can't decipher anything." Vaelis closed the book and handed it back to Zelier. A look of confusion remained in his eyes.

"I really don't know..."

"What kind of Elven clan would use a language like this."